1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wave breaks. More particularly, the present invention relates to transportable and deployable wave breaks that can be transported to a desired location and then affixed in a position adjacent to a shore.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
Shore lines, marshland and beaches are subject to erosion and damage from the action of waves impinging thereon. Wave action erodes beaches by several different mechanisms. Waves mobilize shore line materials and then redistribute them, leading to erosion. Rising and falling water levels may erode beaches over a long period of time. Shore line structures, including sea walls, pilings and levees, have increased beach erosion adjacent to those structures, that causing wave reflection, turbulence, eddies and currents. These currents mobilize the beach materials which may be transported along shore or far offshore. Offshore currents, traversing the beach, can carry the beach materials many miles away until the current slows and the beach material sinks due to the influence of gravity. Further, heavy storms can impinge high waves on beaches and shore lines, imparting heavy forces which carry away the beach or crumble the shore line leading to heavy erosion.
In a natural beach/water ecosystem, the shallow water extending up to the beach, and the beach face itself, act to dissipate the energy of the waves, thereby preventing erosion of the land area behind the beach. Typical water front profiles include a surf zone of relatively shallow water where the waves break into surf, a beach zone where a wave expands its last landward energy, and the land area behind the beach. The land areas typically include dunes, low barrier islands, alluvial fans and river deltas, or bluffs. During severe storm conditions, when the waves are commonly two to three times their normal height, the typical beach response is the loss of material from the beach zone to an offshore sand bar. The sand bar then creates a shallow area offshore with a deeper trough between it and the beach face. The shallow area causes the waves to break on the sand bar, thereby initiating dissipation of wave energy further offshore and providing a wider surf zone. Both of these effects decrease beach erosion.
Many methods have been employed in an attempt to reduce shoreline erosion. These attempts have included both protruding and submerged breakwaters located offshore. The protruding breakwater reflects and/or dissipates the waves. A submerged breakwater also reflects and/or dissipates waves, or causes the wave to break further offshore. These breakwaters are typically constructed of concrete or stone, and are solid structures. Commonly, rubble or rocks are piled in a submerged line off the shoreline to form a breakwater.
Breakwaters have several deficiencies. Foremost, they are expensive to build and maintain. Rubble breakwaters erode by losing rock to the action of waves, and unstable subsoils commonly cause the rocks or concrete segments to sink into the sea or lake bed. The use of larger rocks to prevent wave displacement is expensive, because larger rocks cost more to quarry and transport. Often, the method of installation of the rock riprap requires heavy earth-moving equipment to be operated in the same areas which are deemed to be in need of protection. This can be destructive to the shoreline.
Revetments and sea walls are also used to reduce shore line erosion. However, these structures actually inhibit beach and sand bar growth. Therefore, although they may protect the shore behind the beach, they tend to erode the beach by requiring materials for offshore sandbar development to be provided by the adjacent unprotected beach and by creating intensified water currents which may permanently transport the beach materials out to sea.
It is common for the water depths in the areas adjacent to the beach to be too shallow to accommodate equipment on a barge. Reef domes are largely ineffective and must be deployed manually, since they are hollow precast concrete structures. As such, they are too delicate to be handled with heavy equipment. Geotubes require a source of dredge which is not always available and can be very expensive.
In the past, various patents have issued relating to various types of wave break structures. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,802, issued on Sep. 20, 1977 to W. W. Bowley, shows a floating anchored wave barrier comprising a plurality of members connected by a flexible line. At least one of the members is an inverted vessel having an annulus attached to the periphery of the vessel. The buoyancy and mass of the members are such that when the barrier is placed in water, the top vessel is positioned at or near the water surface and each vessel is partially filled with air. The remaining members can be a vessel having an annulus attached thereto. The remaining members are submerged but near the water surface so that they are located within the top portion of the wave where the major portion of the wave kinetic energy is encountered.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,661, issued on Sep. 8, 1987 to S. Deiana, shows a self-adjusting breakwater for artificial harbors. The breakwater elements are flexible and extensible walled bags of which a major part is to be submerged below the surface of the sea. At least one anchor is fixed by a cable to the bottom of the bag. The bag is filled mostly with water and partly by air, whereby at least part of the air-filled portion extends above the surface of the sea.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,944, issued on Dec. 15, 1987, to L. J. Rose, describes a seawave dissipator apparatus formed of a plurality of inflatable and floatable buoyant members configured and connected on slack lines. These members are adaptable to yielding to high tide and storm conditions. The members are hollow so as to receive a fluid therein. By positioning the buoyant members in the path of sea waves and by minute adjustments of buoyancy, a maximization of dissipation of the waves occurs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,744, issued on Dec. 29, 1987, to A. Richey, provides a floating breakwater. The floating breakwater is formed from steel plates and is in the nature of a large floating barge. This floating barge is designed to break up the power and force of wave action as the waves come rolling toward the shore.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,310, issued on Mar. 5, 1991 to F. C. Rasmussen, shows a portable floating wave dissipating device. This device includes a floating platform, a pivotally connected exposed upper water breaking surface which dissipates the visible portions of oncoming waves, and a pivotally connected submerged lower vane breaking the surface which dissipates the sub-surface portions of oncoming waves. The submerged water breaking surface may also include vanes for redirecting sea water flowing therethrough either upwardly or downwardly to enhance movement of subsurface sediment and sand toward the beach area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,681, issued on Dec. 29, 1992, to Atkinson et al., provides a permeable breakwater for submerged offshore or seawall retentive installation. This breakwater includes a base and permeable opposed sides terminating at an upwardly projecting permeable wave wall. The breakwater is located offshore to cause moderate to heavy waves to break further offshore so as to dissipate their energy before reaching the beach.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,172, issued on Jan. 13, 1998, to P. E. Wilcox, shows a floating wave attenuator constructed to float and provide a breakwater. The wave attenuator includes an elongated pipe closed at its ends and attached to large, heavy deflector plates that extend downwardly and connect at their bottom ends to form a V-shaped configuration. The deflector plates are open at their ends to allow water therebetween to act as ballast and assist in retarding up-and-down movement of the wave attenuator in response to wave action.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,616, issued on Aug. 15, 2000 to H. G. Foote, describes a wave break that has modular elongated floats that are aligned in end-to-end relationship and extend generally perpendicularly to the anticipated direction of the waves. Modular elongated ballast containers are aligned in end-to-end relationship depending from the floats. The float will be wider than the waves. The ballast in the containers is coordinated with the buoyancy of the floats so that the floats extend higher above the water surface than the waves and the container depends below the water surface by a distance greater than the width of the waves. The lower portion of the ballast container face, which intercepts the waves, is disposed at an angle so as to downwardly deflect the waves.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,351,008, issued on Apr. 1, 2008 to Yodock et al., provides floating barrier units so as to form a floating barrier wall. Each of the units has a housing formed in the shape of a highway barrier having a top wall, a bottom wall, opposed end walls and opposed side walls so as to form a hollow interior. The hollow interior is filled with a foam material. A ballast weight is secured to each barrier unit so as to maintain them in an upright position in the water. Cables, couplers and/or other connectors are employed to mount adjacent barrier units in end-to-end relationship.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a self-deployable wave break which can be towed to a desired location in otherwise difficult to access areas.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a self-deployable wave break system which avoids the use of heavy earth-moving equipment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a self-deployable wave break system in which each of the units of the system can be stacked upon one another.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a self-deployable wave break system which reduces transportation and handling costs.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a self-deployable wave break system which can be handled manually.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a self-deployable wave break system which allows multiple units to be connected in end-to-end relationship and transported to a desired location.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a self-deployable wave break system which effectively prevents or reduces beach and inshore shoreline erosion, and which protects marshland.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a self-deployable wave break system which is easy to use, easy to manufacture and relatively inexpensive.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.